The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
The United States (US) and China agreed to a preliminary deal on how to implement the consensus the two sides reached in Geneva, per Bloomberg. US negotiators said early Wednesday that they "absolutely expect" that issues around shipments of rare earth minerals and magnets will be resolved with the framework implementation, even though the full details of their deal weren't immediately available. Market reaction At the time of press, the US Dollar Index was down 0.06% on the day at 99.0. Source : Fxstreet
A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld President Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs, allowing them to remain in effect while it reviews a lower court's ruling that blocked them. The lower court had found that Trump exceeded his authority. These tariffs affect most U.S. trading partners, including Canada and China. Although the appeals court has yet to decide whether the tariffs comply with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), it has temporarily suspended the lower court's ruling. On May 28, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that only Congress has the...
The World Bank lowered its global growth forecasts for 2025 to 2.3%, from 2.7% projected in January, which would be the weakest in 17 years, outside of the recessions in 2009 and 2020. For 2026, global growth is seen at 2.4%, also below 2.7% previous expected. The bank said global growth is slowing due to a substantial rise in trade barriers and the pervasive effects of an uncertain global policy environment. It also added that if trade disputes were resolved with agreements that halve tariffs relative to their levels in late May, 2025, global growth could be stronger by about 0.2 pp on...
The U.S. Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold for at least another couple of months, according to most economists polled by Reuters, as risks linger that inflation may resurge due to President Donald Trump's tariff policies. With most trade negotiations incomplete as the July 9 deadline for a 90-day pause on tariffs announced in April approaches, forecasters have been reluctant to change their already fragile economic outlook. Rising concerns about U.S. debt and a deluge of bond issuance fuelled by a sweeping tax cut bill passed by the House of Representatives, but not the...
Russia is ramping up production of drones, enabling massive daily attacks on Ukrainian cities as its forces slowly advance on the battlefield and Moscow pressures Kyiv to accept its peace terms. The Kremlin unleashed deadly destruction on the capital Kyiv and the Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, firing 315 drones and seven missiles, according to Ukraine. That followed a record 479 drones the night before, which topped the record set on June 1. Moscow has been relentlessly ramping up drone attacks since the start of the year, when the scale of the attacks in February hit a daily record of...